Ford Announce £3bn Investment in Electric Cars

Published Date: 15th Dec 2015

Ford explain that it plans to invest £3bn to expand its plug-in and hybrid electrical fleet of vehicles, and will begin selling 13 new electric models by the year 2020.

This will include a brand new Ford Focus that charges quicker and has an improved range, Ford Announced

Ford will also look to move into the taxi industry, which is currently occupied by Lyft and Uber.The market is worth $5 trillion, so it is due to become a very competitive.

These plans are part of Ford’s broader effort supported by chief executive Mark Fields to counteract companies coming up with alternatives to car ownership and Governments who want vehicles to emit less Co2 emissions.

Ford says they want 40% of their vehicles to have an electric alternative version by 2020, which is just 13% as of today.

The new electric Focus can juice up an 80% charge in just 30 minutes, which is over two hours faster than the previous model, Ford said. The new electric Focus have a total 100-mile range, unlike the 76 mile range that the current version has.

The firm also plans to introduce a Mondeo hybrid and a C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid in China next year.

Ford currently sells electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of its Focus, Fusion, C-Max and Lincoln MKZ cars.

Ford also wants to expand an employee van-hailing service beyond its sprawling corporate campus, and develop it commercially.

"The market for vehicle miles travelled is $5 trillion," Mr Fields explained. "We get zero of that."

Ken Washington, Ford's vice president of research, announced: "Our vision is to be a mobility service provider, beyond building a vehicle that would be in somebody else's fleet. We see this as a business we want to be in."